You may have something there.
The article struck me as as wildly extreme, albeit on the other end of the spectrum, as Apple is with describing the iPad as a "magical device".
There's no perfect device - and very few "evil" ones.
Zittrain and Sweeting worry that if the iPad becomes popular, both entertainment and computing companies will imitate its closed system. Sweeting says he thinks many of the major media companies would love to see computers discourage people from searching the open Internet for content. "I think the media companies will leap at this," he says. "It offers them the opportunity to essentially re-create the old business model, wherein they are pushing content to you on their terms rather than you going out and finding content, or a search engine discovering content for you."